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Norway’s Mayflower Madame is back with a new single called “Paint It All in Blue.” This is the second single off the yet to be released new album, Insight, out on the Night Cult Records label.

Photo by Astrid Serck

Looking at the cover, there is a hand with a wedding ring and the lyrics most definitely allude to a relationship where someone has given everything to another and it hasn’t been a healthy partnership. Their signature dark and heavy bass is present with the flowing dreamgaze guitars. The vocals reverberate sublimely as we are drawn into the song.

It is interesting that hands seem to feature so prominently visually for Mayflower Madame and it makes me wonder if it is about the act of holding onto a person or an ideal and the pleasure or pain that this can cause. “Paint It All in Blue” is blissful post-punk, holding you in a sea of forlorn and of course this is a beautiful thing.

Paint It All in Blue (single) | Mayflower Madame (bandcamp.com)

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Markus Majdalani and Johan Eckerström are the duo that make up Sweden’s darkwave act Hatif. In 2022, they debuted their album Everything Is Repetition and there you can find the track “City Beneath the City,” which has been given a music visualiser.

The song eerily rings true of current events, countries enduring a state of war where the streets, houses, schools and everything people have ever known are obliterated in air strikes, searching for family and trying to survive. A man on a loop, walks down a street, surrounded by debris, towards the light while you listen to the dulcet tones of Hatif, “City Beneath the City” is a great track to revisit, and if this is your first time listening to Hatif, then you should check out their album.

Music | Hatif (bandcamp.com)

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Some of my favourite bands are based in the ephemeral shoegaze sound, and I am going to thrust before you Talking to Shadows, a four piece from Baltimore, who Onyx last reviewed when they released the single “Soma.” Band members, Cat, Ron, Greg and Alex, dropped the single “Valentina” on the 26th of June.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to Cat’s singing, then you are missing out. Smooth and evocative, that only enhances the dreamlike quality, swirling around your ears along with the guitars. There is that wall of guitar noise that lifts you up and takes you away….all of it wrenching a little at your heart.

It would be a shame to try and dissect the lyrics, which have both a visceral pain and at the same time utterly poetic, meaning you should just sit back and just lose yourself in the dark depths of that which is “Valentina.” Cat and the lads are influenced by possibly the most wonderful dreamy guitar group ever in Cocteau Twins and it shows. No, they aren’t Liz Fraser and Co., but then I would be disappointed if they were a carbon copy, and this is Talking to Shadows making their own beautiful music.

Valentina | Talking to Shadows (bandcamp.com)

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Tāmaki Makaurau lays in the Land of the Long White Cloud, aka Aotearoa, aka New Zealand and is also the home base for the three piece punk rock band BURDENZ, who have released their debut single “CULTZ.” Members Jimmy Coldham (vocals, guitar), Alex Ross Smith (bass, backing vocals) and Alex Gallagher (drums) are also involved in bands such as NUGGIEZ, Coffin Club, Jang, Shotgun the Couch and Soul Stroke.

The guitars rumble, soar and dominate in “CULTZ,” winding and fluctuating along with the equally eviscerating vocals searing the air without compromise. They drop into a false lull before once again descending into the vortex of instrument versus man.

Loud and unashamedly balls to the wall punk rock, not over produced and BURDENZ really know how to play. “CULTZ” is a pretty cool debut single from the fertile music scene that is bubbling away in New Zealand.

CULTZ | BURDENZ (bandcamp.com)

https://instagram.com/burdenz.band

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South Australian’s Brave Mistakes is now a fully fledged band, going from a solo project originally, created by a guy who thought he would challenge himself in putting out one song a month. That is pretty good going and says a lot about the character and song writing abilities of lead singer Garrett Cooper.

The vocals are very reminiscent of a soul filled Brian Ferry, combined with bitter sweet lyrics of love , because as we all know that love can hurt just as much as it can fix broken hearts. There is a wonderful play between the guitars that swirls into your ears, with the drums underpinning it all.

“Aching Enough” definitely draws on the alternative Australian sound, and you hear the reverberations of guitar bands such as The Hummingbirds, The Huxton Creepers, The Triffids or even The Screaming Tribesmen. This one really does pull at the heartstrings and there is a longing, leaving us waiting for more.

Aching Enough | Brave Mistakes (bandcamp.com)

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Minneapolis based band, autumn, have been honing their post-punk music since their three member inception back in 1994. Julie Plante (vocals), Neil McKay (guitars/programming) and Jeff Leyda (bass) released their new single “catacombs,” in May, with William Faith (Bellwether Syndicate) recording, mixing, mastering and producing at 13 Studio. This track is off the new soon to be released album, songs about dying, out on Sett Records.

There is something warm and inviting in the tone of the guitars, rich and deep. Julie Plante is quite mesmerising as their lead singer and she sings you a song of love but in the end everything dies, and it all feels so fleeting. Sometimes memory is all we have and that we live on in the memories of others..

“This song really hits on many of the big themes still circulating in our lives right now, but it really came together during the COVID lockdown time. I knew my dad was nearing the end of his life, and I was finding myself really trying to make my peace with this fragile world and my own limited time in it. I was also really dealing with solitude in a way I hadn’t ever before: recognizing that we are each born alone and will ultimately die alone, and yet we are never alone… Much of the video footage was shot up north in the woods in the coldest part of winter, and that too felt right to me. The starkness of a northern winter landscape has always spoken volumes to me of the thin line between life and death.” – Plante

The music video is beautifully shot by Faith, between a snow laden forest and the group playing together. Bones might reside in “catacombs,” but those remains hold stories of lives with great loves and this track is genuinely a lovely gothic ode to life from autumn.

catacombs | autumn-us (bandcamp.com)

http://autumn-us.com/

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Few things are guaranteed… death and taxes seem to be universal, just ask the dynamic Melbourne duo of Louise Love and Luis Gutierrez, of the electronic indie pop band Roles as they bring you the single “Taxes.”

There is something very old school about the sound of the electronics, and maybe it is the way it reminds me very much of early New Order when they were more in their experimental phase, along with the chiming in guitar. All the while you can delight in Love’s always beautifully executed vocals.

Oh my oh my Roles, “Taxes” musically is a charming track, though there is that underlying sadness when it comes to the content of the lyrics, about a friend who is battling their inner demons, talking about the things they need to do but knowing that they might choose to leave this mortal plane. The sweet, the sour and the brevity of this gift called life encapsulated in this brilliant song called “Taxes.”

Taxes | Roles (bandcamp.com)

http://www.rolesband.com/

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Charmaine Evonne (vocals), Tracey Whorton (drums), Dirk Miller (guitar) and Peter Guellard (bass, programming) make up Pittsburgh dark rock band dichro, who dropped their latest single with video, on the label Distortion Productions, called “Mercy.”

A sassy double bass in southern bayou swing, greets your ears, while the guitar wails in the blues of “Mercy.” Evonne’s vocals goes from vibrato to singing the rock from her soul into your bones. There is also the extra bonus bombastic Psycho-Brutalist remix by Psychotribe which ups the electronic factor, glitching and fritzing delightfully.

“Mercy” is a groovy number that shimmies and shakes seductively, holding you in awe, which might just mean that there be some sort of voodoo magic spell placed on you by dichro.

Mercy | dichro (bandcamp.com)

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Swedish label Progress Productions have dropped the new ABU NEIN single “Unwanted.” This is the darkwave band’s first single off their soon to be released third album.

The quick build up to the guitar and vocals, is like a release of dopamine to the system. The guitar work is darker and oppressive, especially when joined by the swirling winter soundscape synths, painting a bleak picture, with the vocals as the focal. Those vocals are beautiful and yet ooze a icy quality.

The beginning of this track became well ensconced in my head for quite a while, and in the back of your brain you can hear those sultry vocals just making your day a little more sexier. ABU NEIN have definitely make “Unwanted” a track to dance your little dark hearts out.

Unwanted | ABU NEIN (bandcamp.com)

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As a dark subculture type, I don’t take myself very seriously and tend to love groups that share that ideal. Athens based Greek band Falooda, are a new project for members Loverman (vocals, synth), Luku luku miu miu (drums), Themis Vasiliou (guitar) and Manolo (bass), with their first release on Bandcamp ironically called Demo 2024.

The four track EP is a mix of punk and experimental noise, with the first track “Orizuru” smacking your ears with the vocals that are a mix of Reverend Horton Heat and Mr Fiend (Alien Sex Fiend), with a pinch of Tom Waits. i was giggling at the end with the gurgling duck noises.

Shake your tail feathers to “Boolean Religion” as you start to wonder if you are trapped in a Japanese movie with Cheech and Chong plus a rather large consignment of weed. “Bottleneck” is a hail of screaming guitar pushed to their limit, before the final track, “Disaster Recovery” climaxes in the self imploding ecstasy of a thousand lost souls.

The guys describe their sound as ‘noise funk dessert with rose syrup, vermicelli, milk and sweet basil seed,’ and this is possibly true should you ever meet them and try a quick lick. However, a comment on Youtube said that Falooda was like ‘listening to Mr Bungle on acid‘….. and quite frankly, I completely agree. Utterly bonkers!!

Demo 2024 | Falooda (bandcamp.com)

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